If hitting the debt ceiling is so terrible, why isn't he willing to compromise on a solution? Why is he holding the USA hostage?

His position boils down to this: "Give me tax increases that I can blame on the GOP, or else I'm going to pull the trigger on the gun to the USA's head. We're going to hit the debt ceiling, and things are going to go bad for all Americans, and I'm going to put the blame on the GOP"

Having used extremely inappropriate language (casting this as a hostage situation) he now puts himself in the role of hostage-taker/terrorist.

And he's threatening to seize spending power for the executive branch, which would be totally unconstitutional.

In the first postmodern presidency, there is no 'earlier'. History only exists as malleable narrative dependent on the needs of present assertions of intent.

By laying claim to Obama's history you're clearly attempting to impose a colonialist, racialist, likely heteronormative, meta-narrative just like so many generations of euro-descent oppressors have done.

Yes, but I'm a direct decedent of those euro-oppressors. If I'm just a random accident of biology, merely lucky to be in a species slightly more highly evolved, how can I possibly go against my genetic imperatives? Blame the ice age, I say.

I understand that it's all the bad people's fault, and we'd be fine if we'd just do as he wants. But, what is that?

The thing is, he doesn't know any better. A guy with a career in organizing the aggrieved to help them demand that someone else make things better, followed by 0 actual executive experience, rides to "victory" on charisma, Bush-fatigue and the accident of his personal story. Then, because the country is in extremis, he gets a hands-off 800-billion or so blank check, without debate, opposition, review or oversight.

THEN, he gets to sign into law a 40-year deferred dream of the "progressive" left, by merely ... well ... hanging back and letting everyone else do the heavy lifting. He's a hero by declining to veto.

Now, there's icky things like international realpolitik, actual budgets with tradeoffs and an opposition - even thought it's an opposition with less control of half the legislative branch than his party had for the first 2 years.

Whiny-guy is, I believe, truly surprised. And he doesn't know how to do anything but whine and slime, since, well, that's all he's had to do to date.

I am having lunch (actually pea soup) at the Oval Room with many consultants. All are in agreement: OB2 will defeat the GOP across the nation, across the cities, across the states. The GOP defeat is going to be so big, that it will take a decade (actually 3-cycles of Presidency) to get back. They will lose the WH, House, Senate, and State Legislatures. There is a sense that GOP pols. will face unemployment soon and that is the big worry for the WH. It is bad enough to worry about Joe Citizen but now we have to worry about GOP Smith getting a job after her/his defeat.

America's Politico said...I am having lunch at the Oval Room with many consultants. All are in agreement: OB2 will defeat the GOP across the nation, across the cities, across the states. The GOP defeat is going to be so big, that it will take a decade (actually 3-cycles of Presidency) to get back. They will lose the WH, House, Senate, and State Legislatures. There is a sense that GOP pols. will face unemployment soon and that is the big worry for the WH. It is bad enough to worry about Joe Citizen but now we have to worry about GOP Smith getting a job after her/his defeat.

I think it was the latest awesome job numbers that put the DNC and Barry over the top and sealed the GOP's fate. I'm sure they will be up to the task of dealing with this future employment issue too.

The only thing saving Vomitbama's ass is the utter fecklessness of Establishment Republicans. Don't do a deal, Boehner. Then explain to Americans that all this doomsday fearmongering is based on one thing and one thing alone: Democrat spendthrifts are addicted to other peoples' money, YOUR MONEY, and will not stop spending. Rinse and repeat. And sit back and dare Zero to continue spending us over a cliff. But Boehner won't do that because he's feckless. The main thing, the only thing is to have a seat inside the buttercup. Tant pis for the peasants.

This is the best analogy - metaphor - descriptive Obama can find? What does he read Dr. Seuss or perhaps Margaret/H.A. Rey? Harvard must have avoided the classics. What a sad example of public school education. Cheers.

I don't hear about it AS much nowadays, but I've got to imagine the dems are considering a primary challenge to Obama as he gives more senseless speeches on debt and the economy, and things continue to get worse and make him more un-re-electable.

I mean...2.5 years after election in a recession, and after his own projections were wildly off in terms of recovery and stimulus effect, he's giving sound bytes like "I'm ready to roll up my sleeves"...

(The Uncredentialed, Crypto Jew)I mean...2.5 years after election in a recession, and after his own projections were wildly off in terms of recovery and stimulus effect, he's giving sound bytes like "I'm ready to roll up my sleeves"...

OBVIOUSLY, you did not read America’s Politico…in the Oval Room the Democrats are cackling with glee! All Republicans are to be swept from office by the Broom of Doom, this November! Please try to keep up….

Can someone please ask the President what his plan is in the event there is no compromise? This breathless talk about the 14th Amendment reminds us that the President has a duty not to default. So he's certainly developing a plan, prioritizing government spending, etc., in order to avoid default. Wouldn't it be germane for the people to know what that plan entails?

Obama's choice of paternalistic metaphors is always interesting. The American people are children and need to act like big kids. We may not like higher taxes and cuts to entitlement programs, but they're good for us, and Obama knows best!

Does anyone think at his next press conference he'll hold up a spoon labeled "revenue enhancements" and say, "Here comes the airplane, coming in for a landing. Neeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrr."

Hoover's Treasury Department had come up with fixes to the recession ... But Hoover was trying to scam FDR. He wouldn't implement the good advice until FDR guaranteed him that FDR would "hire" Hoover to be his economic advisor.

You, of course, know what happened to Hoover.

Oh. And, then, instead of waiting for March 20th ... for the inaugural, this got moved up to January 20th. Cars were a luxury. We had no air transportation system in place. (Except two-seaters. Which I am not counting, here.)

You got to DC by train. And, all the stuff you wanted to carry with you were carted on board the train.

And, the day FDR was sworn in ... He immediately set to work! With what, you might ask?

With everything the Treasury Department had done. And, Hoover just sat upon.

Obama? He's just in a long line of power-madness. But between Obama and Hoover ... Hoover was actually educated enough to have a clue.

Harvahd fell down on its job. Or it discovered it got black students that had to pass ... And, there was no way they were going to absorb an "eduKAY-chun."

Thank goodness, for Clarence Thomas! And, Thomas Sowell.

Maybe, even for Muhammed Ali. Who toured to Africa ... and when he came home he said: "Thank goodness my grand-pappy got on that boat."

For an administration to be as poor as this one, though ... took being surrounded by trust babies and fools ... who have no idea how wealth is gathered.

Or as Balzac said: Behind every fortune is a crime. (Crime waves seems to pay off?)

And the reason for that is that many of us do not like broccoli. The hypothetical is (simplified) that if the individual mandate, forcing economic activity where inactivity was preferred, is Constitutional as Necessary and Proper, then why wouldn't forcing everyone to eat broccoli also be Constitutional for the same reasons? After all, broccoli is good for us, and if we all ate a lot more of it, we would all be healthier, and use and demand less health care.

Peas on the other hand are good. Well, ok, not everyone likes them - we found out in adulthood that my mother would move her peas around on her plate and mix them with her mashed potatoes in order to avoid eating them. But, I would suggest that a lot more people like peas than like broccoli. I, being one of them.

Interesting that this is the thread that is getting the traffic, and not the Palin one. Someone there suggested that by being about her, it would surely hit 200. I think this is the thread today that will do it. We shall see.

And, I was #100. I was thinking about whether I should mention that in my last post, but figured that if I did, someone else would have sneaked in there, and gotten that prized position. I did #200 awhile back, and that was really exciting.

Sweet peas must sorted for size because each pod has small peas at each end, medium size peas towards the center of the pod, and big peas in the center.

The fresh harvested hard peas run on water chutes down through sorting barrels with the holes directing sizes into the next chutes in uniform sizes.

Running 24/7 during harvest, the barrels and chutes become green slime coated. So every couple of weeks everything stops for 4 hours and the cannery is washed and scrubbed down...just in time for the USDA inspectors to come by.

Many cannery workers come to hate the smell/taste of green peas, but I still love them.

The best green peas come from valleys in and around Walla Walla, Washington.